Man's silence may have led to couple's deaths

By Ana Ley :
December 12, 2012
: Updated: December 12, 2012 10:17pm

Robert “Bobby” Snyder and his wife Beatriz “Bea” Snyder. The Snyders were killed on Dec. 5, 2012 at their home in the 15200 block of Spring Mist.

Photo By Courtesy

Robert “Bobby” Snyder is pictured with daughter Paige Snyder and wife Beatriz “Bea” Snyder. Bobby and Bea Snyder were killed on Dec. 5, 2012 at their home in the 15200 block of Spring Mist. Their deaths occurred a year and a half after Paige Snyder died of leukemia.

Photo By Courtesy

Robert “Bobby” Snyder and his wife Beatriz “Bea” Snyder. The Snyders were killed on Dec. 5, 2012 at their home in the 15200 block of Spring Mist.

Billy Tran.

Did keeping quiet cost a man not only his own life but that of his wife as well?

Relatives say that Bobby Snyder knew Billy Tran had a rap sheet, so when Snyder was threatened over Tran's recent termination, he ignored the threats to avoid getting Tran in trouble with the law again.

The pair hadn't communicated in nearly a month when there was a knock on Snyder's door in the 15200 block of Spring Mist on Dec. 5, said his brother Tom Snyder.

Bobby Snyder was shot dead at the front door, and his wife, Beatriz “Bea” Snyder, was killed in the master bedroom, police said.

Tran was arrested in a nearby parking lot and charged with capital murder. He remains jailed in lieu of posting $1 million bail.

It was Tran's criminal history — which included convictions for sexual assault in 1991 and aggravated robbery in 1993 — that prompted Snyder and a third partner, Gerald Pollack, to oust him from their grease removal company BGB Restaurant Services LLC, Tom Snyder said.

“When they severed the business relationship, Tran said, 'I know where you live, I'm going to get you and your family,'” he said. Bobby Snyder “never called police. We told him to. But he knew Billy had a record, and he was worried about him getting in trouble for making any threats.”

The couple's daughter Brooke Snyder, 20, escaped last week's attack by jumping out a second-story window. Pollack, who had been at the family's house for dinner, wrestled the gun away from the attacker, police said.

Tom Snyder said Pollack told the family he didn't immediately recognize the gunman. Pollack also said he feared the man might go upstairs and hurt the couple's daughter.

As the men fought, Pollack told Brooke Snyder to call 911.

“Gerald could have just left the house,” Tom Snyder said. “He went after Billy to protect Brooke.”

A neighbor told the San Antonio Express-News shortly after the shooting that she found Brooke Snyder sobbing and hysterical, sitting in the front yard next to her home.

“She kept saying, 'I left my mom and dad in there. I left them,'” the neighbor said.

Tom Snyder said his niece asked him why God would allow such a tragedy.

“We give everyone the same response: “God didn't do this. Evil people do evil things,'” Tom Snyder said. “You've just got to trust God will get us through it.”

He said the grease collection company, which only had been operating about five months, shut down after the shootings.

Bobby Snyder was new to the profession, though not to the food services industry. He had been a restaurant manager and also opened two restaurants, but both businesses failed, his brother said.

Collection services such as BGB pump grease from traps that restaurants are required to maintain to keep the waste from entering the city's sewer system.

The job can be technical and requires special equipment, so restaurants often use contractors rather than doing the job themselves.

BGB delivered the grease to other companies that turn the waste into products such as biodiesel fuel and candles.

The San Antonio Water System regulates restaurants' maintenance of the grease traps, but the city doesn't regulate contractors that provide collection, disposal and recycling services, so restaurant owners have no tangible way of measuring a grease collection company's trustworthiness.

While restaurateurs don't necessarily conduct criminal background checks on such companies, they do scope them out by word of mouth, said Arthur Garcia, owner of Nicha's Comida Mexicana and president of the San Antonio Restaurant Association.

“When you're dealing with something like picking up grease, I don't know what kind of background would interfere with job performance,” Garcia said. “I just know that if I had a partnership with someone, of course I'd want to know about that person.”

It was a tip from a competitor about Tran's criminal background that led Bobby Snyder and Pollack to terminate their partnership with him, Tom Snyder said.

He said Pollack has had difficulty coming to grips with the loss of his friends and his new job.

“Him and Bobby are close friends,” Tom Snyder said. “He's been with our family almost constantly, and he's been struggling himself.”

The attack happened a year and a half after the Snyders lost their 18-year-old daughter Paige to leukemia. In lieu of flowers for the Snyders, the family is asking for donations to a memorial fund for Paige Snyder.

The fund is being used to complete a bay home and fishing pier in Port Mansfield called Paige's Place, designed to make fishing accessible to people who are seriously ill or have physical limitations. Nonprofit Trinity Oaks is coordinating the project.

The Snyders were buried by their daughter's side Tuesday.

“They were great people,” Tom Snyder said. “Nothing justifies this act of violence.”